Take your Bibles with me again and turn to Colossians 1. Colossians 1. As you are turning there I want to tell you a story...
When I was in college, I used to do door to door evangelism at the University of Tenessee and I used to try to befriend and evangelize the foreign exchange students that were there.
One day, I got into a gospel conversation with a man from India. It was one of the weirdest conversations I ever had about the gospel.
I started to talk to this man about Christ and he was like "Sure, I believe in Christ. I believe in Jesus. Sure, I'll trust Christ as Savior." Normally, you rejoice in that - but this was way too easy and way too casual.
As I talked on with this man, I found out that the reason he could so easily trust in Christ was because he was a Hindu, and he actually worshiped thousands of gods. So why not add another?
I hope you see the problem with that. That is not how the gospel works. That is not how Christ works. Jesus is not just another god, added to your list of gods - Jesus is the one and only. As some preachers have said, "He is either Lord of all or not Lord at all."
I told you that story because it's easiest to see things in the extremes. I haven't met a lot of Hindus like that man who were willing to just add Jesus to their list. But I have met a lot of supposed Christians who treat Jesus like He is just another thing to add to their life. Just another ingredient in their stew.
I want you to understand this this morning. Jesus is not an accessory. Christ is not something you just wear on a t-shirt. Like, which team am I going to represent today? The St. Louis Cardinals, the Illinois Illini, or team Jesus?
It doesn't work like that. Jesus is not a totem. He is not a good luck charm. He is not a slogan. He doesn't just exist to bless your mess. He isn't the frosting or the sprinkles you add to dress up the cake of your life. Jesus is everything. He is the whole cake. He is what it is all about.
Let me tell you something, I'm afraid for some of you Jesus is like your fifth or sixth thing if He even scores that high. You have work, you have family, you have your trips you take, you maybe have to or three other things, and then you have Jesus. He is an accessory to you. Just another add on. A scarf or a watch that ties the whole outfit together.
And I want you to understand that it can't work that way. Christ is what it is all about - He is the center of the universe - He is not an incidental part of our lives - He is our lives. He is not just a stepping stone in our religious journey - He is what it is all about.
Remember, these Colossians Christians were being tempted by false teachers who were saying "Christ is well and good, the gospel is well and good, it's like the ABCs, but you have to move onto the deeper things. You have to jump up the ladder from this Christ stuff to the hard stuff." Then they were basically teaching some kind of weird mashup of self-denial and weird teaching about the spiritual world.
But people were falling for it and a big part of this letter was Paul correcting that and saying "NO. Christ is not the ABCs that you move on from. Christ is everything. You can't move on from Christ. He is not the ABCs, He is the whole curriculum. He is not something you just tack on to your religious system, He is the whole thing.
Are you in Colossians 1? Let's read three verses today. Starting in verse 15 we are going to read through verse 17.
[!Bible] Colossians 1:15-17 - KJV 15. Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: 16. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
I like theologically dense hymns. I like hymns that teach a lot of truth. Hymns that when you sing them on Sunday and then find yourself humming them on Tuesday it's like "Ohh, wow. I get that now." Last week, I introduced the song "Afflicted Saints to Christ Draw Near" to you, written by the a preacher from the 1700s named John Fawcett. He also wrote the song 'Blessed be the Tie that Binds.' Well, I've been reading more of his hymns and they are wonderful.
These verses here in Colossians are thought to be an early Christian hymn. There are very similar passages in other books, and a lot of people think this was something that the early church would sing together about Christ.
If it was a hymn, I cannot imagine a more theologically dense hymn than this. There are five statements this passage makes about Jesus, and they are all kind of summed up in the last phrase in verse 19 - in Christ all fulness dwells.
In other words, Christ is what it is all about. The whole Bible is about Christ. Our whole religion is about Christ.
I've heard it said that:
Christianity isn't about what you do, it is about what you do with Christ.
There is no more important question than this: who is Christ? Who is Jesus?
If you get that wrong, then you miss heaven. If you get that wrong, and Jesus is who He says He is, then you waste your whole life.
This passage tells us clearly who Jesus is in seven statements.
First, it tells us
It says in verse 15 He is the image of the invisible God.
God is a Spirit. God cannot be seen by any man. God is invisible.
Remember the Ark of the Covenant from the Old Testament? That was the symbolic home of God's presence, and on the top of the ark were these two cherebims and they were looking down from both sides at...nothing.
Listen, the jews didn't worship the cherebims, they worshiped who the cherebims were worshipping - they worshipped the spirit that they were looking at.
God is invisible. God is also not like us. His ways are not our ways. Us trying to comprehend God is like an ant trying to comprehend the inner workings of a Chevy Tahoe. He is so much bigger and different than us that we cannot comprehend Him in our little pea brains.
So, God came in human flesh. God made Himself a man and came and lived among us, so we can see what He is like.
That's what this verse is saying "He is the image of the invisible God."
That word "image" is a word that was used for an exact copy of something. It is the word that the Romans would have used for the process of stamping a coin. Passing the exact likeness of Ceasar onto coin after coin.
No one has seen God, no one can see God, so God made Himself a man in the form of Christ. Christ came as the physical image of the invisible God.
John 1:18 says it this way:
[!Bible] John 1:18 - KJV 18. No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
If we wonder what God is like, all we have to do is look to Christ. Christ is Immanuel - God with us. Christ reveals to us in visible form what the invisible God is like. He was God in flesh.
That's just the first thing this teaches us. Look at the second thing. It says the firstborn of creation.
So, not only is Jesus the image of God. Jesus is
A few months ago, I got an interesting phone call. It was from a Jehovah's Witness teacher, and he spent the entire time trying to convince me that Jesus was not God. One of the verses he kept quoting was this one. He said "See, Jesus is a created being. He is the firstborn of creation."
I want to tell you that is not what this means, and all you have to do to see that that is not what this means is read the rest of these verses.
"Firstborn" can speak of two things:
First, it can speak of order. Like, I am my mom's (who happens to be with us today) firstborn. I was her first child. (and...she kept having them.)
But in the ancient world, firstborn also meant something else. It didn't just mean first in order, but first in prominence. To be the firstborn was the be the heir, it was to be the head of the family or in the case of a king, the head of the kingdom.
I don't believe that this is saying that Jesus was first created being in terms of order. Jesus is God and Jesus always was.
No, this is talking about Jesus being the firstborn in terms of His prominence. Jesus is the most prominent person in all creation.
Now, in a sense, Jesus was created. He did take on human flesh. He was born. But He existed with God in eternity before that.
Remember, one of the most controversial things Jesus ever said while on this earth was "Before Abraham was, I am." He was clearly claiming to be God and claiming to be eternal - and the jews immediately wanted to stone Him for it.
Jesus always existed - but on this earth - He is the most prominent part of creation. He is the firstborn. The exalted one. He is what it is all about.
So, He's the image of God. He's the firstborn of creation. Look at the third thing this passage teaches:
Verse 16 says:
[!Bible] Colossians 1:16 - KJV 16. For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Jesus isn't just God incarnate, the firstborn of creation - Jesus is the one that created creation. He made everything that was made.
If you read this verse, it's a pretty extensive list. All things that were created were made by Him. All things in heaven and all things in earth. All things that are visible and all things that are invisible.
Jesus made everything. This is another reason why Jesus can't be a created being. Jesus is God. He isn't just another angel, another spirit in heaven, no! Jesus made all the spirits in heaven and Jesus is responsible for creating the world we live in today.
He made everything and He made it in an orderly way. There are thrones, dominions, principalities and powers in heaven and Jesus is the creator of all of them.
A few weeks ago Brother Glenn took me out to his car to show me a table he had made in shop class in High School about 80 years ago. He was so proud of it (and he should have been proud, it was good work.)
But listen, there is no craftsman that ever lived who can come close to creation. Think of the stars on a clear night - when it seems like you can see millions of them. Jesus made that.
Think of the mountains. I love mountains. You can drive east from Knoxville and see some amazing views. Jesus made that.
I looked up in the sky yesterday and saw a large bird. Maybe a hawk, swooping over the neighborhood. It was so beautiful and graceful. Jesus made that.
People make a big deal about angels. But do you know what? Jesus made the angels. He made it all.
He is the creator of all things.
Look at verse 16 again:
Notice that last phrase there. It says all things were created by him, and for him.
That leads me to the fourth thing this passage teaches us about who Jesus is. He is the image of God. He is the firstborn of creation. He is the creator of creation.
Now, we see that He is...
Everything was made for Jesus. It's all for Him.
Do you understand the meaning of that? Everything that was made is to serve Jesus. He is the purpose of everything. Everything was created for Him.
It's all about Jesus. He is the alpha and omega, the first and the last and everything in between. It all belongs to Jesus.
Turn with me to Romans 11 for a minute. Romans 11. Romans 11 is kind of the end of the doctrinal part of Romans, Paul gave us 11 chapters there explaining how Salvation worked and then how Israel fit into it and at the end of chapter 11 Paul said this. Look at it, verse 36:
[!Bible] Romans 11:36 - KJV 36. For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.
This is the same thing - it's all about Jesus. He is the center of everything. He will be given glory for ever and ever.
So what? Now, look at the next chapter. Look at chapter 12 verse 1:
[!Bible] Romans 12:1 - KJV
- I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Because Jesus is the purpose of everything, we should live our lives as a living sacrifice to Him. We should give Him everything. It's our reasonable service.
Jesus is the purpose of everything. Is He the purpose of your life? Is He who you live for day to day? Is He the purpose of your marriage? The purpose of your family?
Is that reflected in the way you spend your time? In the way you spend your money? If Jesus is the purpose of everything, is that reflected in what you are doing with your life?
You know, we have these missionaries come through here and they are giving up their lives to go to the foreign field. They are going to Africa where they can't even get clean water or they are going to southern Mexico where they have to worry about the cartels cutting off their towns. The world looks at them and they think "that makes no sense. Why would anyone do that? Why would any smart successful person give up their career, their comfort and go tell other people somewhere about Jesus?"
But I want to tell you this church - if what the Bible says about Jesus is true - it's not the missionaries who don't make sense, it's the Christians who stay home and live a life that is all about themselves that doesn't make sense.
Maybe you've made some decisions, like you are going to be in church on Sunday no matter what, and maybe your kids baseball coach doesn't like it and they say "You know, I'm a Christian. Be reasonable here. What you are doing doesn't make sense."
And I say "No. if everything is about Jesus, the only reasonable thing to do is to give our life to Him."
He made it all and it is all for Him.
There is one more thing I want you to see here. We've seen how Jesus is the image of God. He's the firstborn of creation. He's the creator of everything. He is what everything is for.
Look at verse 17 with me:
[!Bible] Colossians 1:17 - KJV 17. And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
The last thing I want you to see that these verses teach us about Jesus is...
By Him all things consist. In other words, Jesus is what is holding this world together. Jesus is the force that is keeping this whole thing from falling apart.
Do you realize just how fragile our world is? If the earth was just a few miles closer to the sun, we'd all die. What's keeping the earth on it's course around the universe? Jesus is.
Think about the makeup of air. It's 78% nitrogen. 21% oxygen. There are other gases in it like argon and carbon dioxide. Do you know if that mixture gets messed with like there is too much nitrogen, then all the plants die.
Think about a nuclear energy for a second. A nuclear reaction can power an entire state for decades. Just a single atom going beserk and setting off a chain reaction. There are trillions of atoms in this room. What's keeping any one of them from going Chernobyl on us?
Jesus is keeping it all together. By Him all things consist. He is the sustainer of all things.
Do you ever feel like your life is about to just fall apart? Like you are one thing away from being a total train wreck? I know you do. We all do.
We all have so many things we have to deal with: Pain, loss, sickness, the threat of sickness, disappointment from loved ones, too much month at the end of our money.
How do we keep it together? We don't. Jesus does. I'm so thankful that Jesus is the sustainer of all things - and that I don't have to be. We can rest in Christ, because by him all things consist.
So Jesus is a big deal. He is the biggest deal. He is what it is all about.
It's all about Jesus.
Can I ask you this as I close: What is your life about?
Jesus is at the center of the universe - whether you want Him to be or not.
Is Jesus the center of your life? What is your life about?
What is your work life for? What is your family for?
Think about our church, is Jesus at the center of our church?
Can I encourage you this morning to put Jesus in His right place in your life.
Maybe there is someone here who has never trusted the gospel and accepted Jesus free gift of Salvation. You are living like Jesus isn't real - but one day you will find out that it was all about Christ. You may not want to bow your life to Him now, but one day every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Why not accept the gospel and put your faith in Christ today?
Maybe there are people here - I suspect many of us, and Jesus isn't in the right place in our life. We are living like we are the center of the universe - not Christ. Let's put Christ in the right place in our life.
Let's stand together for our song of invitation.